Possible violation of NCAA rules discovered
Charges of football players’ substandard grades denied
By Richard Bonin
Staff Writer
A file in the office of the director of admissions suggests the university football team may have violated National Collegiate Athletic Association regulations for at least three years by allowing freshmen to practice or play with the team when their high school grade point averages were below the minimum 2.0 requirement.
The file, in the office of Jay Berger, director of admissions, contains the names of football players possibly recruited in violation of NCAA standards, two independent sources confirmed.
There are, however, two methods of computing grade point averages either through high school or college standards of calculation, with the college version providing the lower average. It could not be determined which computation the file contained.
Each source saw the file independent of the other and in different years. The university may have recruited high school football players in violation of NCAA rules from at least 1975 to at least 1978, the sources said.
A warning typed on the back of the file states: 'The content of this file is not to be released under any circumstances," the sources said.
Below the warning are the handwritten letters "J.V.B." the same as Berger's initials, and in handwrit-
ing, the names Tom Walcha and Conrad Wedberg.
Wedberg was director of admissions from 1962 to September 1976, when Berger replaced him. Before Wedberg left his position to work in governmental affairs for the university, Berger and Walcha worked under him as associate deans of admissions. Walcha, also director of admissions for marketing, left the university in 1978.
"I held the file in my hands," one source said.
"The people in the file did not have 2.0s (high school grade point averages). They were already playing (football) at USC (as freshmen)/' the other source said.
The bylaw which the university may have violated was adopted by the NCAA Aug. 1, 1975. It states: "An entering freshman with no previous college attendance who matriculated as a 2.000 nonqualifier in a Division 1 institution...shall not be eligible for financial aid, regular-season competition and practice during the first academic year in residence."
It could not be determined if any players in the file had received athletic scholarships or any other form of financial aid.
Berger, in a telephone interview from Hawaii where he is recruiting new students, denied Friday that football players were admitted to the university below NCAA standards.
"I can assure you there are no football players or
athletes that have been admitted below NCAA standards," he said. "I can assure you that their (high school) GPA was not below 2.0 if they plaved for USC."
Asked to confirm if the file exists, Berger said, "I don't know what you're talking about. I have no comment."
Berger said there are different ways to calculate a student's grade point average. High schools will sometimes use a method that gives a student a higher average than what the university would, he said.
"NCAA uses the high school GPA," he said. "That is perfectly legitimate according to NCAA standards. I swear to God there is no athlete at the university who has been admitted below a 2.0."
Walcha denied that the file exists.
"To the extent of my awareness and knowledge, such a file did not exist," he said.
Walcha, however, spoke as if the file did exist.
"It (the file) may have included information about athletes who had GPA's below 2.0, but they wouldn't have been accepted to the university or were not playing with the football team (in NCAA competition)."
Wedberg, like Walcha, denied that the university admitted football players whose high school grade point average were below NCAA requirements.
(Continued on page 8)
dM%lrojan
Volume LXXXVII Number 40
University of Southern California
Monday, November 12, 1979
Campuses hit by student unrest over Iranian issue
By Teresa Watanabe
Assistant City Editor
The recent seizure of the American embassy in Iran bv Moslem students has ignited massive demonstrations at some university campuses, created less than a flicker at others.
While the university remained quiet, members of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade and Vietnam Veterans Against War staged a feistv 3-hour demonstration Fri-dav at UCLA.
Speaking through bullhorns, they supported the embassy takeover and pledged their support of the Khomeini regime in the face of American students who chanted "USA," sang "God Bless America," and waved the bicentennial flag, said Michael Mace, staff writer for the Daily Bruin.
A fight broke out when some
students "tore to bits" the Vietnam veteran flag, Mace said. A foreign student counselor at UCLA said another fight ensued after students tore down a red banner proclaiming "Death to the Shah." No one was injured, thev said.
At thr demonstration, which drew anout 500 people, the co-nmr lists continually were shoute<: down by Americans who chanted for Iranian deportation, Mace said. He said the crowd was "a bunch of WASPv students" with about 15-20 demonstrators, few of whom were Iranian.
Although Iranian students frequently protested last year, they have remained relatively low-keved this year, Mace said. About 400 Iranian students attend UCLA.
At the University of Washington in Seattle, a mob of Ameri-(Continued on page 7)
ORGANIZED CRIME — At a national conference last week at Norris Theatre, law enforcement officials, elected officials, academicians and experts focused on the growing problem of organized crime. Seen left to right are: Edward R. Cony, Albert Delugach. Frank McCullock and Budd Schulberk.
Panel differs on ways to deal with underworld
By Bob Conti
Assistant Articles Editor
Participants at the Conference on Organized Crime all seemed to agree that organized crime affects everyone, both in the public and private sectors.
But many of the members disagreed on how the problem developed and the methods to rombat it.
Frank Wilkinson, a member of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, was concerned that some of the proposed methods designed to fight organized crime would weaken civil rights, while law enforcement agencies argued for increased use of electronic surveillance devices.
One of the most vocal of the enforcement officials was Darvl Gates, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Gates said laws such as the Freedom of Information Act and the Freedom Act plus other laws that can make formerly confidential files public interfered with enforcement efforts.
The California Legislature has repeatedly failed to pass legislation such as wiretapping laws that would allow enforcement agencies to listen to telephone conversations by suspected organized crime figures, he said.
(Continued on page 5)
CONFERENCE LOOKS AT MYTHS
Experts debate organized crime
"The number one enemy of the country is not the Soviet Union but organized crime," said Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) at the National Conference on Organized Crime held on campus Thursday and Friday-
More than 500 educators, law enforcement officials, journalists and elected officials met to exchange views on what DeConcini described as "a subject which is too often ignored yet which eats away at the very foundation of our society."
Speakers like Philip Manual, who has been the senior staff investigator for the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Ronald Goldstock, deputy inspector of the U.S. Department of Labor,
discussed the definitions of organized crime and the failure to develop a national strategy to control this phenomenon. Various panels addressed the role of organized crime in politics and attempted to identify the victims of organized crime.
The definition to which most participants seemed to agree was one put forth by Virgil Peterson, formerly of the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Chicago Crime Commission. "Organized crime," he said, "is a continuing conspiracy for profit perpetuated through violence and by making arrangements for immunity through the corruption of officials."
While those involved in organized crime have traditional-
ly been considered to be members of the Mafia or La Cosa Nostra, Peterson, Manual and Charles Rogovin, a professor and associate dean at Temple University Law School, described this view as a mvth.
"It is a highly over-simplified picture of organized crime in America to assume that in its totality it is dominated by a single Italian organization functioning smoothly' under the guidance and control of a na-tinal board of overseers,” Peterson said. "No single organization or ethnic group could possibly control the conglomerate of organized crime in its totality."
Rogovin lamented that a government taks force organized in (Continued on page 6)